Walking Ventura not easy

As a former resident of Ventura, I would like to express support for Ventura becoming a more pedestrian-friendly city. I feel strongly about the transformative effects this change might have on the lives of its residents. Greater independent living, better engagement with the community and increased neighborhood vitality are among these benefits.

I consider myself fortunate to be a resident of Berkeley, (a &quot;walkable city,&quot; as noted on the Walkable Communities Web site), where it is assumed that activities such as going to school, the grocery store, or a friend's house will be facilitated via walking. Neighborhoods and centers are interwoven with one another and within less than a quarter-mile walk apart (a distance Randy Hester claims in &quot;Design for Ecological Democracy&quot; to be vital for enabling patterns of accessibility).

I take this fact for granted in Berkeley. However, on returning to Ventura, the stifling effects of an automobile-based city are immediately felt. I had not realized how drastically my day-to-day life had been restricted by the fact I had to rely on a car (which I did not own as a teenager) to get to and from anywhere. I imagine, too, that the many residents of Ventura who are either too old or too young to drive, or who, for economic reasons or other do not have access to a car, feel limited in their independence.

Walking, besides its obvious health benefits, fosters interaction with the community. We complain because we do not know our neighbors, for they drive into their garages after work and leave from them in the mornings. Walking reverses this; we are able to get to know our neighbors and interact more cohesively with our surroundings.

Ventura is a beautiful town, yet, there is only one part of the city that I feel allows residents to experience the city's unique relationship with its natural geography without the aid of the automobile. California Street &#8212; from the courthouse on Poli Street down across Harbor Boulevard to the beach &#8212; connects the foothills and the beach, the downtown district and the promenade, and it is very walkable. Walking down California Street, one is offered everything quintessentially &quot;Ventura,&quot; including the views, the experience of the eclectic shops and restaurants around Main Street, and the opportunity of meeting and interacting with fellow residents. Even the experience of crossing the freeway and the train tracks here is relatively safe and comfortable. There is a pleasantness to the area, an overall feeling of vitality that draws both locals and out-of-towners.

If Ventura were designed to be a more walkable city, I feel as though it would come to resemble California Street on a larger scale; residents would have greater mobility, neighborhood connections would be fostered and the energy that is present here might permeate the rest of the city.

&#8212; Nicole Kite is a student of landscape architecture and environmental planning at UC Berkeley.